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Blackblade 16.0 - Man's Love for his Animals
After spending a week recuperating in Hyogo City, the group decided to set out east to Nara City in order to meet with Masanori Komatsu, Raito's friend. As they were preparing to leave, Raito discovered that his Rod of Emergency Teleport had gone missing, and was replaced by a note from Ridley saying that he would have it back in a jiffy, and they should go on ahead without him. Setting out without magical enhancements to their travel, they made the eight-day journey to the neighboring province's capital. The trip was uneventful, though Ragoom began to notice very odd effects to his health, undoubtedly caused by the effects of the Void card that he had recently drawn from the Deck of Many Things. When they arrived, Raito alerted Masanori with a messenger bird statue that he was now in the city; they had, during their letter correspondence over the last two weeks, arranged to meet in a particular restaurant that they often frequented. While going to the meeting place, the group found themselves the subject of many a person's stare: between Traveler and Kirsikka, both highly unusual looking animals for Yeto, and the number of strange foreigners in their party, the general population seemed to have a hard time understanding what to make of them. Once they arrived, the animals were hid behind the building by concerned restaurant staff. Raito reserved a private room for the group of them, where they waited for Masanori's arrival. When a waiter announced to them that Lord Komatsu had arrived, Raito, attended by Vol, left to meet with him, while the others entertained themselves. Raito and Masanori had a long discussion regarding both the events that had occurred to Raito on his travels, and those that had happened in Yeto in the intervening months. Masanori had slightly better insight than Kenta had possessed regarding the military situation, and the two discussed plans for best utilizing Raito's small yet skilled force against the mounting threat of Lord Miro. During their discussions, a tired yet chipper Ridley appeared in the doorway and tossed the missing rod over to Raito before rejoining the rest of the party. Eventually, Raito brought Masanori over to inspect the rest of the party. A plan was discussed, and it was eventually agreed that, while they still possessed a measure of surprise and mobility, the group would travel south to Niigata Castle and confront Mako Murakami, Miro's gensui rikugun, and hopefully kill him or force his submission. Masanori had to take his leave, as he had duties to address. The group found an inn for the evening, and rested peacefully. In the morning, the group bought passage on a barge that was shipping south down the Chisoku River to Niigata. During the three day trip down the river, the drake eggs that Vol had been carefully tending began to hatch. The eggs were distributed amongst their owners so that they would imprint upon the correct people upon entering the world. Raito, deciding that he had better things to do than raise a baby lizard, gave his egg to Vol to raise alongside his own, on the caveat that the elf train the drake to be ridden by him when it was mature. The eggs all hatched successfully, welcoming six new baby drakes into the party. When the barge docked in Niigata, Ridley stressed the importance of not letting Vol be captured. Taking Kirsikka, the pair of them left to hide elsewhere. Before they left, Caelan entrusted his drake to Vol, as he knew that combat was no place for a baby creature. The remainder of them decided to try and scout out the castle. Raito, disguising himself and lying to the gateguards and kitchen staff that he was delivering a shipment of persimmons, managed to gain entry. Making himself invisible at his first opportunity, he ran about the castle's main building wantonly, looking in rooms in an attempt to find valuable information. Unfortunately, he found neither Mako nor any sort of particularly useful documents or objects, so, using his teleport rod, which he had disguised the carrying pole for his persimmons, he escaped. Unfortunately, he was directed into the nearby river, and was fished out by a highly confused local. The group decided to wait until the next morning to confront Mako, mainly in order to give the teleport rod a chance to recharge. They left the city and camped on a path running through a farmer's rice paddy. As the evening grew late, a group of three men, obviously town guards, approached them. They informed the group that the acting lord of the castle, Lord Murakami, had heard of their large, strange creature, referring to Traveler, and wished to purchase it from them. Though Broken Tusk was unwilling to part with his companion for any price, Raito saw this as an excuse to get an audience with their target. The guards were told that they would come to the castle in the morning to negotiate a price with the lord. While the men offered the foreign travellers accommodations for the night, the party insisted that they would rather sleep on the road. Accepting their strange preferences, the guards left them be for the rest of the night. The following morning, the group approached the castle bright and early. The guards at the gate had been informed of their arrival, and let them in without question. They were escorted to the main building and all traveled inside, including Traveler. Standing in the main entryway, they were instructed to wait for the lord. Some time passed; it seemed that the staff had a hard time keeping track of where Mako was. Suddenly, a young Yetoman with jagged blonde hair, grey eyes and fine clothes came sliding down the bannister of the nearby stairs, hurriedly followed by an attendant struggling to keep up. The man sauntered over to where Traveler stood, and gushed about the animal's size and foreign appearance, wondering about how it fought. He seemed generally dismissive of the rest of the people present; he asked Broken Tusk how much he wanted for the animal. Broken Tusk in turn wanted to know what his plans were for the mastadon, and Mako readily admitted that he wanted to hunt it, fight it, kill it and eat it. The druid was deeply offended at this notion and informed him of such; the gensui's reply was disdain that Broken Tusk was "one of those 'pet' people" and still pressed for a money amount. When Mako passed by Raito, Raito exclaimed that the "price is your life!" and attempted to deliver a destructive spell with a touch of his finger. Mako dodged his extended hand with a bored ease, and looked at him with not-hostile confusion, asking for an explanation. Some of the others were equally confused, but Broken Tusk would not be deterred. As it looked as though the group of would-be animal traders were turning violent, Mako drew his sword: an exotic-looking blade whose make no one could identify. He spinned it about almost lazily, still asking futilely for an explanation. He slashed at Raito in what appeared to be an almost noncommittal fashion, and even still managed to severely wound him. Broken Tusk took the shape of a megalocerous as Raito drew Takuetsu, hoping to fell him before he decided to take them seriously. As he drew his black sword, Mako looked at it and exclaimed that he must be the man who had been wandering around Asanon. Raito tried to back away, but Mako's sword blocked him. Unable to leave, he lunged, and this time his attack hit its mark, leaving a gash on Mako's arm. Mako cussed violently at his own carelessness, but much to Raito's chagrin, even with his focus directed on his own arm, he counterattacked and left another grievous wound on Raito's person. Ragoom ran over and used his magic to heal Raito, while Caelan and Yomiel held back, to Broken Tusk's frustration. Raito, deciding that this battle was perhaps not in his favour, called a retreat and ran over to Yomiel, who was holding the teleport rod. Mako, however, informed him that he was not allowed to leave just yet: with practiced ease, he ran past the entire group and dodged all of their attempts to assault him. As he neared Raito, he sheathed his sword and, with a frightening fluidity, knocked Takuetsu from his hands and took the sword for himself. Broken Tusk, acting quickly, cast Moonstruck; Mako was unable to resist the spell and stood dazed. As he grew fangs and claws, he dropped the blade he had stolen, and the group quickly formed up to teleport away. Before they left, Raito collected Takuetsu, ordered Caelan to seize Mako's personal sword, and spit in the magicked gensui's face before the group teleported to safety. They found themselves nearly two days travel outside of Niigata, and were rather shaken with the whole ordeal. Walking quickly away from the direction of the city, Raito noticed Yomiel muttering to himself; when he asked what he was doing, Yomiel revealed that he possessed a Ring of Shared Sound, and was talking to Ridley about what had happened. When Raito asked where he and Vol were, Yomiel replied that he didn't know, and wouldn't ask in case they were captured and interrogated. Raito found this acceptable. About an hour after they had fled, Raito received a Sending in a woman's voice. The message stated that her lord wished to negotiate for the return of his gensui's sword, and if they refused, he would reclaim it by force. Unsettled and with unfavourable odds of winning a direct confrontation, Raito agreed to negotiate. They inspected the sword they had captured: it was of very fine, albeit foreign craftsmenship, and was powerfully enchanted, but the group could not particularly reason as to why it was so important that Lord Miro would demand its return. At the day's end, they entered a small farming hamlet and found an inn: a simple place that afforded warm food, a roof and not much else. They sat around a table, discussing what they would bargain for in exchange for the sword. Eventually, they settled that information regarding the magic circles would be the best thing they could hope for. Well into the evening, the door of the inn opened and three people strode in: a middle-aged woman Caelan recognized as the wizard who had collected Wizard, a foul-tempered Mako, and a pale, grey-eyed young man in robes: Lord Osamu Miro. Osamu sat at their table, asking no permission, and asked what they wanted in exchange for the sword. Raito carried out the conversation, in his indirect way. When asked about the circles, Osamu informed them that they were an enchantment, designed to grant him power so that he could finally unify Yeto and put an end to its eternal warring. He would not tell them where the other two were located, as he reasoned that since they had apparently found the first three with no trouble they shouldn't have any issues finding the others. Finally, Raito asked about Wizard, who was apparently still alive, and though Osamu refused to relinquish the kobold as an exchange, he did agree to keep him alive and well for the rest of the small creature's life. Osamu then demanded the return of the sword, which Caelan relinquished; he passed it behind him to Mako, stood, and the three took their leave. Unsettled and unsure, the group debated their next move before retiring for the night. Category:Banishment of the Blackblades